Wellington, what a lovely city. Everything within walking distance from the centre and the locals all going out of their way to welcome us.
Wellington, what a lovely city. Everything within walking distance from the centre and the locals all going out of their way to welcome the large amount of Welsh visitors.
These evening kick offs over here certainly mean that you see a lot of Welsh shirts on the sightseeing routes as they hold back from heading to the pubs and 'peaking' far too early in the day.
From our accommodation about 15 minutes from the centre, we headed in by bus on Saturday morning and went straight to the Te Papa museum which was housing the Gallipoli exhibition. Many Welsh shirts in the queue for this exhibition and well worth the wait. What a fantastic tribute to all those who were at Gallipoli, heart breaking at times with not a dry eye at the exit. We mistakenly call our rugby stars heroes, but people like those at places like Gallipoli were really heroes.
Wife made the mistake of asking if I was peckish just as were walking past the 'Bruhaus', so arm twisted, I allowed her to take me in to this watering hole. While in there, I was struck yet again by how much the New Zealanders like the Welsh, it would be an exaggeration to say that people were queuing up to chat to us in this pub, but we weren't left alone for long before some Kiwis would start chatting and welcoming us to Wellington and wishing us well in the game.
With nightfall, the Westpac Stadium looked majestic as we strolled the short waterfront walk to get to it, with hundreds and hundreds of Welsh fans proudly displaying the Welsh Dragon.
Alwyn Jones, the North Wales representative on the WRU Board, had done us proud with the tickets and we had a fantastic view in what is a fantastic stadium. Displaying our Welshpool flag, we had many comments from locals and visitors alike, one gentleman walked up to us, introduced himself, said he had been born in Welshpool, before living in Churchstoke for a few years and emigrating to New Zealand. Before I had chance to quiz him further, he'd gone.. What a small world we live in.
Elin, singing the anthem, did us proud yet again and, whilst the New Zealand anthem was good as well, I reckon we're two to nil up on the Anthem singing stakes.
Yet again, the game was tight until half-time and, by full-tme, we had experienced the rollercoaster of emotions that being a long-time Welsh rugby supporter brings. There's always Dunedin!
Must say, that I can't see how the Westpac Stadium got a safety certificate with what appears to be just one exit out of the stadium at the end of the game. We stood amongst thousands under the stand trying to get out and, no exaggeration, we hardly moved in thirty minutes.
The New Zealanders we met after the game were very generous in their praise for the Welsh team and have been surprised at the performance by our boys in the first two tests.
Disappointment on Sunday morning when we found that the cable car to take us high above Wellington was not running because of a major refurbishment so it was a bus trip instead to the top.
As it's winter over here, the tourists are few and far between so when you visit any of the attractions you almost end up on a one-to-one tour with the guides. Thus it was with the Cable Car Museum and the twelve year old who showed us around (everybody looks about twelve when you get to my age!) was really enthusiastic and a real font of knowledge.
Not being the fittest (which will change when I get back home, honest!) I was glad that we were walking down through the Botanical gardens from the summit rather than the other way round.
We just managed to catch the last tour at the Parliament Buildings which was really interesting, again with only half a dozen of us or so. Amazing to see what they've done to ensure that the building will stay intact if they're hit by an earthquake.
A visit to both the New St Pauls Cathedral and the old St Pauls Cathedral finished our sightseeing of the day before heading for a lovely seafood restaurant overlooking the harbour. A city centre and harbour which was an awful lot quieter than the night before, in fact, there was so little going on, most of the pubs were closed.
Our last day in Wellington arrived and we decided to have a drive out around the coast and give the city centre a miss. And what a joy, stopping every few miles at yet another photo opportunity point, with a coffee thrown in here and there.
With a few hours to spare before we had to think about packing ready for our trip to Christchurch, we visited the Weta Caves, where, amongst other things, they made much of the Lord of the Rings films and the new Thunderbirds series. Shocked to be reminded by our tour guide that it was over fifty years ago when the original Thunderbird series first came out (I'm sure I've still got my John Tracy outfit in the attic from that time, sad or what?). Biggest disappointment though was to hear that in the original series they were puppets and had strings!
And so, our Wellington visit was at an end and on to Christchurch...
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